5 Ways Trump Tightened His Stranglehold on the Pennsylvania GOP Gov Primary This Week
Two New Polls Show Insurrectionist Doug Mastriano, Who Was Subpoenaed for Role in Jan. 6, Leading GOP Field
After a particularly chaotic week in the PA Gov GOP primary, it’s more clear than ever that Donald Trump is pulling the strings in the crowded race, reaffirming that all of the Republican candidates care more about a resident of Florida than working families in Pennsylvania.
Here are 5 ways Trump proved he’s the #1 factor dominating the GOP primary this week:
- Two new polls show far-right extremist Doug Mastriano as the frontrunner: Doug Mastriano has maintained a solid lead over the rest, two polls showed this week. Mastriano is best known for busing people to the Capitol insurrection, passing police barriers at the Capitol on January 6th and pushing Trump’s conspiracy theories — also receiving a subpoena from the bipartisan January 6th investigation.
- The anti-endorsement of Bill McSwain: Trump butted into the GOP primary to give an anti-endorsement of Bill McSwain, telling Republicans flat-out, “do not vote for Bill McSwain” and calling him “a coward who let our country down.” The damage to McSwain’s campaign is so bad that even a special interest group that is his biggest backer refused to say they’ll stick with him. Meanwhile, Dave White was so eager to hug Trump that he immediately rushed to start airing new attack ads on Trump’s comments.
- Corman drops out, talks to Trump, hops back in: For just a moment, the PA primary field was one candidate lighter when Corman decided to drop out. But after Trump’s anti-endorsement of McSwain and a 1-on-1 conversation with Trump himself, Corman hopped right back in just hours later. Apparently, he sees Trump’s anti-endorsement as such a nail in the coffin for McSwain’s campaign, that it’s enough to resurrect his own embarrassing campaign.
- Lou Barletta visits Mar-A-Lago for a fundraiser: The photo says it all.
- And to top it off, Amanda Carpenter writes in the Bulwark, “Pennsylvania Republicans will nominate a 2020 election conspiracist for governor in the May 17 primary. How can I be sure of that? Because they’re all election conspiracists.”
“The PA GOP candidates have completely ignored the issues Pennsylvanians care about and made this race about one thing — proving their loyalty to Donald Trump,” said DGA Deputy Communications Director Sam Newton. “With Trump pulling the strings in this primary, the Republican nominee for governor is guaranteed to be out-of-touch no matter who it is.”